Nowadays cheaper phones are getting better & better. Same goes for smartwatches. Sure, there isn’t a worthy Android counterpart to Apple Watch. But you can not use an Apple Watch on an Android phone. That also if you could afford one in the first place. Pebble Time was a great Smartwatch that had all the necessary features for under $100 price. What if I told you that there is another Smartwatch called Amazfit Bip which is even better than Pebble Time and comes for $80? Well, today I will be reviewing the Amazfit Bip. We’ll see the pros and cons of this watch and test if it lives up to the tall claims.

The Best Pebble Time Alternative – Amazfit Bip review

I will be breaking down this review into multiple sections so you can find what you want to know about this Smartwatch easily. Just want to get it out there that I have been using the Amazfit Bip for past couple of months and I feel that I can tell you my experience with it. But just in case if I miss out on something, feel free to drop your suggestions down below and I will make sure to include them as well in this review.

Who is this Smartwatch for?

First of all, let’s answer the question of who is this Smartphone for. A simple answer would be, Anyone who needs a Smartwatch under $100. But if you want a smartwatch you can take phone calls with, do voice commands, check socials, and has a very fancy look to it, then the Amazfit Bip is not the smartwatch that you want to get.

If you want to Smartwatch that you can wear in your day to day life, has Excellent battery life, Excellent outdoor visibility, GPS, Heartrate Sensor, Pedometer, Gives your notifications and has IP68 Water Resistance then look no further than the Amazfit Bip.

Features of Amazfit Bip

Display

Usually, when we talk about any Smartwatch under $100, one of the biggest corner cutting is done in its display. You will get an LCD or OLED Display which looks good indoors but becomes completely useless outdoors in direct sunlight.

The Display used inside the Amazfit Bip is the same which was used in the Pebble Time. There is a fancy name for it which is “Transreflective LCD” but it is more commonly known as E-ink or E-Paper display. Basically, this type of display has a reflective surface which makes it more readable in direct sunlight. But on the other hand, it is not as high quality and high resolution as the regular LCDs.

Battery

The battery life on the Pebble Time was 7 Days on a single charge, which was unheard of at that time but the Amazfit Bip has a battery life of up to 40 days. Some users have reported that they could get even 50 days of battery life out of this little guy. No, the watch itself is very light barely noticeable after a couple of hours on your wrist. One of the main reasons for this battery life is the Display technology.

Basically, the display is the component which uses most of the battery life on any smartwatch but the display of the Amazfit Bip only uses battery power when it is changing the graphics. So if you have a watch face which doesn’t show the seconds, it will only consume battery life each minute.

GPS

Now if you need a Smartwatch under $100 which also has a GPS, you will find it very difficult to find one. Amazfit Bip has a built-in GPS which locks the location fairly quickly. Built-in GPS lets you leave your Smartphone at home when you are going out for a Hike or Run.

Amazfit Bip tracks your steps, heart rate, speed and also tracks the locations that you can see on a map inside the Mi-Fit app.

Using the GPS drops the battery charge fairly quickly but at least it has Built-in GPS.

Notifications

This Smartwatch connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and shows your notifications on the display. It also gives you a haptic alert which is very subtle. You can use the Mi-Fit app on your Android or iPhone and choose which apps you want the smartwatch to show you notifications from.

When you are getting a phone call, you get vibrations via the watch and it also shows you the Caller ID of the person calling you. It also gives you the option to hang up or ignore the call. The later just stops the watch from vibrating.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you get a notification on your watch and you clear it from there, it doesn’t get cleared from your phone. And if you ignore the call from the smartwatch, it doesn’t stop your phone from ringing/vibrating.

Water Resistant

The smartwatch is rated at IP68 Water for up to 30 meters deep & Dust Resistant. This certainly gives you a peace of mind but there have been cases where water has seeped inside the watch and has broken it. It can handle regular hand washes without any problem but I would suggest that you don’t go swimming with it.

I can tell you my experience with the Amazfit Bip so far. I do not go swimming or take showers with it on, but I have submerged it in the water countless times and it is still working fine.

Other Features of Amazfit Bip

You can use 3rd party apps on your Android phone to load customized watch faces on it. The Standard features of a watch like Alarm, Stopwatch & Timer are available. It also shows you weather information which it takes from the smartphone.

It also has a built-in compass that you can use without your smartphone. One feature that I sometimes use is the Find Device. If I lose my phone in my home, as long as the watch and the phone are connected, you can use the Find Device feature and it makes the phone ring. This works even if your phone is in silent mode.

The Amazfit Bip has standard 20mm Quick Release Straps which means that you can change the straps very easily

Users in China can also make payments with the Amazfit Bip watch as it supports AliPay QR Payments. Users outside China can’t use that feature.

Things that I didn’t like about this Smartwatch

There isn’t an option to limit the number of notifications in a particular time. Let me explain what I mean by that. Let’s suppose that you have enabled WhatsApp notifications on the Smartwatch and have it set to show the notifications only if you have your phone locked.

Now if you turn off the internet on your phone, or you go out and you don’t have 3G/4G connection. WhatsApp will send you notifications for all the pending messages as soon as you are online. This drives the Amazfit Bip crazy and starts vibrating for all the messages even if you have read all the messages on your phone and cleared the notifications.

No Music Controls and No Voice Assistant.

The Display gives you a very good daylight visibility but it is fairly washed out indoors and at night. Especially when the backlight turns ON.

There are no games or apps on the Watch itself. The Pebble Time had some basic games and apps which you could use with the buttons.

The watch is completely made out of plastic which makes it feel cheap. Don’t get me wrong here. The quality of the watch material is not bad at all. It is just that I would have liked it more if it had some metal touch, like the Pebble Time.

Where can I buy the Amazfit Bip?

I have added the Amazon Purchase link below and I hope that you will use this like to make the purchase. This is an affiliate link and I earn a small commission if you use my link. At the time of writing this review, the Amazfit Bip is available for $72 but click below for the latest pricing.

That’s it for this review of the best Pebble Time Alternative that I could find, The Amazfit Bip. If you likes this reveiw and found it helpful then make sure to share it with others and also don’t forget to follow us on twitter for more updates.